The Junkyard Cowboy is book three in Christie Craig’s Tall, Hot & Texan series. A series that centers on a group of friends who vowed always to be there for each other; this time it’s Jennifer’s story. This is one of those fun and easy Texas Romance reads that I love reading every now and then. The characters are all very likable and easy to sympathize with, Jennifer isn’t one of those stupid heroines that does something incredibly stupid because she’s too stubborn to have good sense. Clay is a jack of all trades, but he always wanted to go into law enforcement he always pictured that by this time in his life he would have been a Detective, but all he is now is rancher and owner of junkyard. Throw in Pete the old man that Clay inherited with the junkyard and his mongrel dog Devil and it’s an all-around a fun read with great romance, action and comic relief.
Jennifer is an interior designer it what she always wanted, but after agreeing to testifying against a client in a child abuse case she hasn’t been able to find work, she also has been getting threats to top it all off her fiancĂ© dumps her for another woman. Jennifer’s upset over it and fed up with once again losing the guy she searches the internet for the career with the lowest divorce rate she then decides she will only marry someone from the lowest percentile i.e. funeral director. The night after she runs the plan by her friends, who all think it’s stupid, she gets run off the road the only place for her to run to after the guy gets out and starts to chase her is a ramshackle office in the junkyard. Clay was in the middle of taking a shower when he heard someone banging on the office door, he comes running out naked to help a woman who was being chased by a gun wielding thug.
Jennifer and Clay have a mutual friend he also happens to be a lawyer and married to one of Jennifer’s best friends. He suggests Jennifer hide until after the trial, Clay offers his house, it’s out on a ranch with no real close neighbors. The sexual attraction is strong between Jennifer and Clay but both are hesitant to start anything, Jennifer and her new rules that Clay breaks all of them. Clay has reasons of his own and has a hard time trusting again but Jennifer is kind, smart, and beautiful it was hard for him not to fall in bed with her what they both agree to as just a fling quickly escalates into something more but will either of them give when it comes to trusting again. All the while the gun wielding thug is trying to track down the naked man who had dared interfere with his hit.
Overall, this was a good read. It had some pretty steamy scenes and Pete and Devil add a bit of quirky to the story.
**ARC provided by Author**